Will this day also change Pakistan’s history?

LAHORE: As Messrs Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari, the former Premier and President of Pakistan respectively, are due to face extremely important and perhaps life-changing court verdicts on Monday (today), we still don’t know what December 24 has in store for this formidable political duo, though the world has witnessed a lot of important events on the Christmas Eve.

While this date has brought smiles on the faces of many around the world, it has also left some mourning. So, keep your fingers crossed to see if December 24 helps Nawaz and Zardari wear broad smiles up their faces, or misery, life-long sorrows and distress greet them both, or anyone of them!

Here follows a brief chronology of some international historic events that took place on December 24, which happens to be the 358th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar: On December 24, 1814, the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain had ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.

On this date of 1851, a fire had devastated the Library of Congress in Washington DC, destroying about 35,000 volumes. On December 24, 1906, Reginald Fessenden became the first person in the world to broadcast a music programme over radio.

1914: In World War I, the first air raid on Britain was conducted by a German airplane, which had dropped a bomb on the grounds of a rectory in Dover.

1944: A German submarine had torpedoed the Belgian transport ship S.S. Leopoldville with 2,235 soldiers aboard. About 800 American soldiers had perished.

1951: NBC-TV presented, "Amahl and the Night Visitors," the first opera ever written for television.

1951: Libya had gained independence from Great Britain.

1968: Three astronauts, James A. Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman, reached the moon. They orbited the moon 10 times before coming back to Earth. Seven months later man first landed on the moon.

1979: Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in support of the country's Marxist government.

1989: Ousted Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega had sought refuge at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Panama City.

1992: US President George Bush Senior had pardoned former Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.

1999: Ivory Coast President Henri Konan Bedie was overthrown in a coup.

1999: An Indian Airlines plane was seized during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal, to New Delhi. In Afghanistan, some 190 hostages were freed on December 31 after India released three Kashmir freedom fighters from prison. One passenger was killed inside the plane though.

By the way, a lot of global rulers and celebrities born on this day include King John of England, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, former Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, King Salim III of Turkey, former Nepalese Premier Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, King George I of Greece, Finland’s lady President Tarja Halonen, British politician Ed Milliband, Indian singing maestro Muhammad Rafi, Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, sensational singer Ricky Martin, great American actress Ava Gardner and renowned BBC journalist Lyce Doucet etc.

Famous people who died on this date include German President Karl Donitz, globally-renowned Portuguese explorer and politician Vasco de Gama, French Premier Jean Louis Darlan, Dutch Premier Joop den Uyl, Brazilian President Baptista de Oliveira and former Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera Rodríguez etc.